Overview

Temperance Brennan, like her creator Kathy Reichs, is a brilliant, sexy forensic anthropologist called on to solve the toughest cases. But for Tempe, the discovery of a young girl's skeleton in Acadia, Canada, is more than just another assignment. Évangéline, Tempe's childhood best friend, was also from Acadia. Named for the character in the Longfellow poem, Évangéline was the most exotic person in Tempe's eight-year-old world. When Évangéline disappeared, Tempe was warned not ...

2007 Hard cover New in new dust jacket. Signed by author. Sewn binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 310 p. Audience: General/trade. Signed by Kathy Reichs on the title ...page. First Edition/Printing. Brand New and unread. Jacket in protective mylar cover. Ships bubble wrapped and in a box.Read moreShow Less

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Overview

Temperance Brennan, like her creator Kathy Reichs, is a brilliant, sexy forensic anthropologist called on to solve the toughest cases. But for Tempe, the discovery of a young girl's skeleton in Acadia, Canada, is more than just another assignment. Évangéline, Tempe's childhood best friend, was also from Acadia. Named for the character in the Longfellow poem, Évangéline was the most exotic person in Tempe's eight-year-old world. When Évangéline disappeared, Tempe was warned not to search for her, that the girl was "dangerous."

Thirty years later, flooded with memories, Tempe cannot help wondering if this skeleton could be the friend she lost so many years ago. And what is the meaning of the strange skeletal lesions found on the bones of the young girl?

Meanwhile, Tempe's beau, Ryan, investigates a series of cold cases. Three girls dead. Four missing. Could the New Brunswick skeleton be part of the pattern? As Tempe draws on the latest advances in forensic anthropology to penetrate the past, Ryan hunts down a serial predator.

Kathy Reichs

Editorial Reviews

Marilyn Stasio

A deft hand at balancing the emotional light with the dark, Reichs links the enchanting Evangeline and her Acadian heritage to the unsolved cases of dead and missing girls that have stumped the police for years. And even now, 10 books into the series, Tempe's strung-out affair with Detective-Lieutenant Andrew Ryan still hangs on the tensions that confound lovers in an atmosphere of violent death.
—The New York Times

Publishers Weekly

Linda Emons brings the same high level of expertise to Reichs's 10th Temperance Brennan forensic thriller as its author does to the series. Both women understand instinctively that simply rattling off details of DNA matches and other scientific data isn't enough: it's making listeners believe in the people collecting that data. The cold case of a missing Quebec girl becomes a very personal quest for Brennan when she discovers that the bones in question probably belong to a childhood friend-a figure of fascination and sophistication who suddenly disappeared from Brennan's life at the age of 15. Emons brings both Tempe and her friend Évangéline Landry to vivid life. She's equally good in briefer scenes with Brennan's lover, Ryan, who investigates the dead girl's link to a predator who might still be active. Reichs, who might be the legitimate heiress to Patricia Cornwell's throne, has a winning partnership with Emons. Simultaneous release with the Scribner hardcover (Reviews, June 4). (Sept.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Kirkus Reviews

In her Montreal office, forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan stares down at the old bones on her desk. Are they the bones of an old friend?Temperance Brennan (Monday Mourning, 2004, etc.) was eight when she met ten-year-old Evangeline Landry, who for the next four years was her closest friend. Both had been lonely girls, strangers in a strange land. Tempe had been transplanted from Chicago to Charlotte, Evangeline from Acadia, Canada. Abruptly, without a trace, Evangeline vanished, but Tempe has never been able to forget her. Thirty years later, a female skeleton is plaguing her with painful questions. How old is old? Was the death violent? Is it absurd to think what she's thinking just because the bones were found in Acadia? Answers are hard to come by, in part because Tempe's plate is piled even higher than usual. Detective Lieutenant Andy Ryan is handling the scary new case of five girls in their late teens to early 20s, three missing, two dead. Have they fallen victim to a serial killer? And of course there's Ryan himself, a lover acting uncomfortably cool. Tempe, beset and brilliant as always, buckles down to find answers, only some of which will be rooted in the death sciences. A bit of a jumble at the end-Reichs is a committed over-plotter-but Tempe is both deeper and funnier than she's ever been, making this her best outing to date.

From the Publisher

"Gripping, full of twists and turns." — Ottawa Citizen

"Tempe is both deeper and funnier than she's ever been, making this her best outing to date." — Kirkus Reviews

"Dr. Brennan is rock solid and this book is easily one of the series' best." — The Globe and Mail

More by this Author

Kathy Reichs, like her character Dr. Temperance Brennan, is a forensic anthropologist, formerly for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in North Carolina and currently for the Laboratoire de sciences judiciaires et de médecine légale for the province of Quebec. A professor in the department of anthropology at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte, she is one of only ninety-nine forensic anthropologists ever certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. Reichs’s first book, Déjà Dead, catapulted her to fame when it became a New York Times bestseller and won the 1997 Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel. Her latest Temperance Brennan novel, Bones of the Lost, was an instant New York Times bestseller. Her website is KathyReichs.com.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

Babies die. People vanish. People die. Babies vanish.

I was hammered early by those truths. Sure, I had a kid's understanding that mortal life ends. At school, the nuns talked of heaven, purgatory, limbo, and hell. I knew my elders would "pass." That's how my family skirted the subject. People passed. Went to be with God. Rested in peace. So I accepted, in some ill-formed way, that earthly life was temporary. Nevertheless, the deaths of my father and baby brother slammed me hard.

And Évangéline Landry's disappearance simply had no explanation.

But I jump ahead.

It happened like this.

As a little girl, I lived on Chicago's South Side, in the less fashionable outer spiral of a neighborhood called Beverly. Developed as a country retreat for the city's elite following the Great Fire of 1871, the hood featured wide lawns and large elms, and Irish Catholic clans whose family trees had more branches than the elms. A bit down-at-the-heels then, Beverly would later be gentrified by boomers seeking greenery within proximity of the Loop.

A farmhouse by birth, our home predated all its neighbors. Green-shuttered white frame, it had a wraparound porch, an old pump in back, and a garage that once housed horses and cows.

My memories of that time and place are happy. In cold weather, neighborhood kids skated on a rink created with garden hoses on an empty lot. Daddy would steady me on my double blades, clean slush from my snowsuit when I took a header. In summer, we played kick ball, tag, or Red Rover in the street. My sister, Harry, and I trapped fireflies in jars with hole-punched lids.

During the endless Midwestern winters, countless Brennan aunts and uncles gathered for cards in our eclectically shabby parlor. The routine never varied. After supper, Mama would take small tables from the hall closet, dust the tops, and unfold the legs. Harry would drape the white linen cloths, and I would center the decks, napkins, and peanut bowls.

With the arrival of spring, card tables were abandoned for front porch rockers, and conversation replaced canasta and bridge. I didn't understand much of it. Warren Commission. Gulf of Tonkin. Khrushchev. Kosygin. I didn't care. The banding together of those bearing my own double helices assured me of well-being, like the rattle of coins in the Beverly Hillbillies bank on my bedroom dresser. The world was predictable, peopled with relatives, teachers, kids like me from households similar to mine. Life was St. Margaret's school, Brownie Scouts, Mass on Sunday, day camp in summer.

Then Kevin died, and my six-year-old universe fragmented into shards of doubt and uncertainty. In my sense of world order, death took the old, great-aunts with gnarled blue veins and translucent skin. Not baby boys with fat red cheeks.

I recall little of Kevin's illness. Less of his funeral. Harry fidgeting in the pew beside me. A spot on my black patent leather shoe. From what? It seemed important to know. I stared at the small gray splotch. Stared away from the reality unfolding around me.

The family gathered, of course, voices hushed, faces wooden. Mama's side came from North Carolina. Neighbors. Parishioners. Men from Daddy's law firm. Strangers. They stroked my head. Mumbled of heaven and angels.

The house overflowed with casseroles and bakery wrapped in tinfoil and plastic. Normally, I loved sandwiches with the crusts cut off. Not for the tuna or egg salad between the bread. For the sheer decadence of that frivolous waste. Not that day. Never since. Funny the things that affect you.

Kevin's death changed more than my view of sandwiches. It altered the whole stage on which I'd lived my life....

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Save your money

Ms. Reichs included pages of mind numbing details that had nothing to do with the plot or character development. Speaking of the plot, it was the most ridiculous, convoluted, unbelievable mish-mash I've ever read. It was as if the author had a dozen pieces of nonsense rattling around in her brain, and then just squished them all together and called it an ending. My husband bought the book for me because I enjoy the television series 'Bones,' and I kept reading even though it was a dreadful disappointment. I wasted my time he wasted his money.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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ldailey

Posted October 22, 2008

Amazing Book!

This book is almost impossible to put down! There are so many twists and turns, yet it is extremely easy to follow! I recommend this to anyone who enjoys the shows CSI or Bones! I also Recommend the entire Tempe Brennan series by Kathy Reichs... they are all amazing! Best of all, you dont have to read them in order to enjoy the book, yes they give you more details if you read them in order, but they also stand alone very well!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted January 23, 2008

A reviewer

Dr. Reichs gave me an insight into a culture I had only heard of, but knew little about, the Acadiens of New Brunswick. As a French speaker myself, I liked the occasional use of the 'Chiac' dialect, which looks little like French. FROM BONES TO ASHES offered gripping suspense from the beginning to the end. The book successfully weaves the story of unidentified dead girls with missing persons, Dr. Brennan's long lost childhood friend from the Acadie region of Canada, and the stigma of a now treatable disease into a moving read. I would highly reccommend this book to fans of history, anthropology, forensic science, and mystery.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted September 21, 2007

Disappointing At Best

I can't believe the author could write such dribble. The story is weak. I think she had a contract to whip out a book, and that's what she did with no thought of her readers who pay good money for her books. I feel cheated and angry. I have been a fan for years, but no more. I would be reluctant to purchase her next book. Has she made her money and now just does not care? If you want to read all the action in this book, just read the last few pages. Skip all the whining.

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted August 29, 2007

Disappointed

This story line was good and it was something that I had never read about in a novel before but I was disappointed with the ending of the book. It leaves Tempe's personal life turned upside down and it gives you nothing to anticipate, after reading Break No Bones I was hoping this novel would shed some light on things but it didn't and actually just left her life more screwed up then what it was.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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a superb investigative thriller

Forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan needs a diversion as her love life seems to be collapsing with her relationship with Detective Andrew Ryan, shaky at its optimistic best. Thus, when she is asked to look at the remains of a cold case in New Brunswick, Canada, she leaps at the opportunity. The skeleton is that of a a teenage girl, which leads Tempe to believe that the bones are the remains of Evangeline Landry. Three decades ago when Tempe was eight, her fifteen year old friend Evangeline vanished without a trace. Looking back Tempe vaguely remembers being told to forget Evangeline ever lived.--------------- As she recalls the warning from her youth, Tempe wonders what caused the lesions on the bone structure. At the same time Ryan investigates three cold cases involving missing teenage girls eventually found dead with the same scenario as that of the Jane Doe that Tempe feels is Evangeline. Both think their cases are the result of the same serial killer and share the fear factor that this predator still operates freely after all these years. ------------- Tempe¿s tenth forensic whodunit is a superb investigative thriller that hooks the audience from the first moment that the heroine begins her inquiry. The fast-paced story line is action-packed with the two subplots tied together as much by the investigations as it is the relationship. No one plays with Bones better than Kathy Reichs does as the latest Temperance Brennan cold case mysteries retains the series trademark of fresh suspense enhanced by the latest forensic breakthroughs.-------------- Harriet Klausner

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted July 13, 2014

A coworker gave me this book in audio format and I couldn't get

A coworker gave me this book in audio format and I couldn't get past the second disc. it was overwhelming in a underwhelming fashion. there was too many scientific words for the average reader to understand or care about. just a bunch of rambling nonsense.

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tiger-100

Posted February 2, 2014

must read!!!

really got into this one, read all of it in 2 days!!! had to plug NOOK in so I could keep reading it.

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Anonymous

Posted February 1, 2013

Another Excellent Temperance Brennan Story!

This is another amazing story from Kathy Reichs... I love all of her Temperance Brennan novels, and this one is a definite must-read! Fantastic inclusion of information about other fields of study (such as history and linguistics), and as always, excellent and interesting information about forensic anthropology!!! Great plot, with unexpected twists and turns right up until the end!

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ds_sweet

Posted August 21, 2011

If you like Fox's 'Bones', you'll love the original Temperance Brennan!

I recommend starting with Deja Dead and reading straight on through! You won't regret it!

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TopDown

Posted March 17, 2010

My 1st Reichs Read

I bought this book because my girlfriend is a HUGE fan of forensic mystery and reads all Cornwell's books less than a week after they are out. She loves the TV show "Bones" and this is part of the "Temperance Series". (The 10th I've learned- but my first.)
My Girlfriend was sick in bed this past weekend and so I read it to her between her "naps". She at first could not stop interupting me because the personalities in the book were different than the charactor on the TV show. (I don't watch the show and was enjoying the story just fine!)
It didn't long once the plot started to move that I noticed I was reading to a rapt audience and I felt 'cheated' when she would doze off and I would have to stop reading.
This book is grabbing enough that you can easily read it in one sitting (just make sure you have a the day free of interuption if you are the type), but has such short chapters that you can also let the story tease you along with quick reads here and there through the day.
(Or if your the type that tries to read before bed and can't get past 5 pages.)
My next trip to the bookstore to "stock up" on Spring & Summer outdoor reads is going to include AT LEAST a few more Bones books and to get aquainted with K. Reichs award winners.

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Noticer

Posted November 12, 2009

Thoroughly enjoyable!

Totally enjoyed this book and would recoomend to anyone who isn't familiar with the human body so that they will get an understanding of the bones of the body and some knowledge of biology.

Enjoy medical fiction as the general public has a lot of learn in this area and would recommend to everyone.

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Another enjoyable book by Reichs

The book will definitely stand by itself, but is a welcome continuance of the Brennan series. Hard to put down, this book continues to deal with the hard science of forensic anthropology in a enjoyable and entertaining manner with some nice sidebars. Although I mark it for escapism, it is intellectually stimulating.

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MountainView

Posted December 9, 2008

READ BEFORE BUYING!

Bones to Ashes was a great book. It was filled with mysteries, action, and cliff hangers. My favorite part of the book would have to be the fact that every chapter, every paragraph was filled with interesting clues to help the reader determine the mystery of the story.<BR/> The book was about a girl named Temp. When she was a child, her best friend, Evangeline was kidnapped. She spent years looking for her friend but later gave up. As an adult she became an anthropologist, a person who studies human beings. When one of her colleagues came upon some bones which in turn could belong to Evangeline, Temp spends many days studying the bones. She comes up with nothing connecting those bones to Evangeline. Temp puts many weeks into studying these bones and realizes that they may be connected to Evangeline some how. Later, she finds out that many other girls, like Evangeline, were kidnapped and taken to where Evangeline may be. One girl speaks out, telling Temp how she and the other girls were used for inappropriate videos. If so, where is Evangeline?<BR/> I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys cliff hangers and loves mysteries. This book would probably be best for people over the age of ten due to some content. The most important thing about this book is the reader has to like to read or else the book will become boring, due to the fact that there are almost 400 pages in the book.

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Anonymous

Posted May 11, 2008

Didn't Finish....

I've not read any of Reich's novels, but was intrigued by this storyline. I was excited to start this book, however, became disappointed very quickly. I found the writing style to not flow well and be very distracting. Needless to say, I didn't finish the book....

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted October 18, 2007

did not like this book

its one of the most disapointing books that she has written..will not buy another ..i liked the romance between tempe an ryan

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted August 4, 2007

A brother's murder led to Acadia

A brother's murder led to Acadia Kathy Reichs new novel flowed from sisters' resolve to get an autopsy July 28, 2007 Aloma Jardine The Hamilton Spectator MONCTON, N.B. (Jul 28, 2007) Temperance Brennan normally sticks to solving cases in Montreal and North Carolina, but the forensic anthropologist's career has also taken her to Guatemala and Israel. In her next adventure, Tempe Brennan, the fictional heroine of author and forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs' bestselling series of novels, will travel even farther off the beaten path. Tempe is heading to New Brunswick. In Bones to Ashes, the discovery of the skeleton of a young girl in New Brunswick brings Temperance back to her childhood as she is reminded of the disappearance of her young Acadian friend Evangeline. The story of how Reichs came to write a novel based in New Brunswick would make a bestseller itself. It began with a murder 26 years ago this month. In 1981, New Brunswick missionary Raoul Leger was serving in Guatemala in the midst of the country's bloody civil war. When he was killed in July of that year, the Guatemalan government said he died with a group of guerrillas who committed suicide rather than surrender. His body was repatriated to Canada several months later. But Leger's family never bought the official version of events and in 2001 his sisters Andra and Clola Leger were invited by a National Film Board crew to visit Guatemala to try to unravel the mystery surrounding his death. Andra Leger says that trip made them realize how important it was that they had their brother's body. Many of the estimated 200,000 people killed during the civil war simply disappeared. They also realized Raoul's body may help bring justice by providing evidence of war crimes. 'I foolishly thought it was as simple as calling the Moncton Hospital and asking for an autopsy,' Leger says, smiling as she recalls how complex the whole process was. Leger was finally told an autopsy on a 20-year-old body required the expertise of a forensic anthropologist and the only one east of Montreal was Kathy Reichs. Leger had no idea Reichs was famous. She had no idea she was even an author. She knew only this woman might be able to give her family some answers and help them close a painful chapter in their lives. 'I bugged her every day,' she says, explaining how she sent e-mail after e-mail asking for help in navigating the red tape involved in getting her brother's body exhumed and transported to Montreal to a facility equipped to handle the autopsy. Reichs patiently answered each e-mail, rerouting Leger to the proper people. The two finally met in Montreal in December 2001 when the autopsy was performed. As they said goodbye, Reichs made a quip about not getting five or six e-mails a day anymore. 'Are you going to miss me?' Leger asked. 'Maybe,' Reichs replied, and so the two women continued to e-mail each other, Reichs from wherever in the world her work happened to take her, Leger from her quiet home in Cocagne, about 30 kilometres northeast of Moncton. Reichs, who speaks French fluently, had been fascinated with the Legers' Acadian accent when they met in Montreal. Leger says, 'Then last February she sends me an e-mail -- hers are always one-liners -- 'What do you think if my next book is based in New Brunswick?'' Leger started sending Reichs bits and pieces of New Brunswick and Acadian history -- the deportation in 1755, rum running off the coast, the leprosy hospital in Tracadie -- and Reichs made plans for a visit. If Reichs wanted to see Acadie and Acadians as they are, she couldn't have picked a better guide. As Leger recounts Reichs' adventures in the province, her hands stay busy cutting up strawberries in the kitchen of her century-old farmhouse. 'Basically we shared our life with her as we live it -- no fuss, no muss,' she says. Leger has never been star struck around Reichs. By the time

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Anonymous

Posted September 16, 2007

Finally--a best seller worth the read

I've enjoyed Kathy Reichs' books in the past, but this one really kept me on the edge of my seat. The plot was different than anything I've read before, and the ending brought everything togehter. I look forward to reading the next book to get some resolution on Tempe's personal life.....

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